shouting, "you lie." at the president. here's how it happened. >> there's those who claim our proposal will insure illegal americans. this too is false. the reforms -- the reforms i'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally. >> you lie. >> not true. >> yeah. well we'll have more on wilson as mea culpa and the white house's response. >> a just released audiotape features bernie madoff in a phone conversation coaching a witness about to be interviewed concerning madoff's fraudulent investment firm. >> this madoff thing is a gift that keeps on giving. we begin with president obama taking ownership of health care

reform laying his vision on the line. it was an urgent call to action of what americans fear most in the system and explaining why reform cannot wait, not just for the 30 million americans who cannot get coverage. president obama also sought to change the dynamics and the tone of the debate insisting he will heal the partisan divide. >> this is the plan i'm proposing. it's a plan that incorporates ideas for many of the people in this room tonight, democrats and republicans. and i will continue to seek common ground in the weeks ahead. but, know this. i will not waste time with those that made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than to improve it. >> and this morning we're covering the story like no one else. we go live to the white house, capitol hill and we have the truth squad checking the facts.

and an independent analyst and columnist will join us in a moment. first of all, let's start with elane. he wanted to move the ball forward on health care reform. by all accounts he certain lie might have gotten some distance to that but where are we as we wake up thursday morning with halt care reform? >> john, as you know, after a politically brewsing august the president wanted to hit the reset button on the health care debate. >> thank you. thank you. >> trying to retake control of the run away health care debate president obama asserted. >> the time for bickering is over. the time for games has passed. now is the season for action. >> on the controversial public option staunchly supported by liberals but decried as a government health care takeover by conservatives, the president again tried to thread the needle saying he prefers a bill that

includes a government option run care. >>it's only one part of my plan. and shouldn't be used as a handy excuse for the usual washington ideological battles. >> the president blasted what he called scare tactics by opponents, calling the notion of a bureaucratic death panel a lie and he insisted illegal immigrants would not be covered, prompting an outburst from south carolina gop congressman joe wilson. >> you lie. >> wilson later called the white house to apologize. as for specifics, the president did mention what he supports, though much of it he mentioned before, including a ban on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions, limits on out of pocket expenses, and a new insurance exchange meant to allow individuals and small businesses to shop for health insurance at competitive prices. missing, though, were new

details on exactly how to pay for the president's $900 billion plan, aside from what he's already said before, finding money by cutting waste and inefficiency in medicare and medicaid. >> while there remains significant details to be ironed out, i believe -- i believe a broad consensus exists for the aspects of the plan i just outlined. >> it was an emotional appeal as well as the widow of the late senator of edward kennedy looked on president obama recounted kennedy's thoughts on health care in a letter delivered to obama after kennedy's death. >> what we face, he wrote, is above all a moral issue. at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country. >> now the president will try to keep the momentum going. he'll make remarks on health

care and he'll meet with centrist democrats. he'll hit the road to campaign for health care. >> elaine quijano at the white house for us. thanks. >> rodney dangerfield may have said it best, tough crowd, i can get any respect. republican congressman joe wilson shouting "you lie." wilson did apologize but there may be some political short fallout. our washington correspondent is following the developments live from capitol hill. what could happen? >> well, we don't know exactly what would happen but certainly democrats are looking into see if joe wilson may have violated any rules because the house was in session last night when president obama gave his address to the joint session. as criticism really started to rise last night, wilson was pretty quick to release a paper

statement that said this evening i let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president's remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the halt care bill. while i disagree with the president's statement my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. i competent sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility. he issued an apology to president obama through his chief of staff, rahm emanuel. listen to the bipartisan criticism that came in the hour following this speech. >> totally disrespectful. no place for it. in that setting or any other. he should apologize immediately. >> when i was growing up, not far from columbia, i was always taught that the first sign of a good education is good manners. i think that what we saw tonight was really bad manners.

and having a spirited debate is one thing. exercising bad manners is another. that was beyond the pale and i would hope that he would publicly apologize on that same floor to the president of the united states for that insult. >> now, that was james clyburn the number three democratic in the house. this was minutes before wilson issued his apology. but there are rules governing appropriate behavior on house to floor and because the house was in session we asked him, are democrats going to be looking into enforcing those rules, sanctioning congressman wilson? he said we're looking into that. so we're looking into it very closely. >> some people might say just let it go on. why waste time with this. >> maybe that will happen because that's something clyburn

said to us ahead of the apology. it distracts from the president's message last night. we'll see today if they do go through with that. >> let's talk about the president's message because he needed to talk to democrats. they needed to hear from him last night. how did democrats, especially more conservative democrats receive the president's speech? >> what we were looking for after this speech was how did these liberal democrats that say i'll only vote for a bill with a public option. how did they respond to the president and how did the conservative democrats say if there's a public option i will not vote for it. it kind of seemed to be that depending on the point of view of the democrat they pulled from it what they will. the liberal democrats seemed very happy that president obama touted the public option, didn't shut the door on it. conservative did democrats seemed to zero in on the fact that the president talked about being open about other ideas. he did manage to straddle that

twid but certainly this issue of whether there's going to be a government run insurance plan isn't settled and so this is certainly a debate you're going see continuing here on capitol hill. >> i'm sure we will. we want to know what you think about all of this. please share your thoughts with us. cnn.com/amfix. >> president obama making lots of promises in his speech to congress last night so what was true and what wasn't? alina cho has the truth squad fired up. we'll have the results. (announcer) we understand. you need to save money.

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♪ >> there it was the scene of the latest town hall meeting. good morning, washington. cloudy at 66 right now. going to rain later today and maybe we'll hit 70 degrees there. who knows. >> be nice except not the rain. welcome back to "the most news in the morning." president obama addressed a joint meeting of congress last night in prime time. the president said it was time for action and time to ends the partisan bickering that's clouded the issue. >> too many have used this as an opportunity to score short term political points, even if it robs the country of our opportunity to solve a long term challenge. and out of this blizzard of charges and counter charges, confusion has reined. >> how did the president do last night? our independent analyst joins us now. it was build as a make or break moment for the president last

night. he tried to clear up some of the ambiguity since there's no plan. how do you think he did? >> depretty well. high risk, high reward. post-speech polls showed he cleared that bar. so, i think it was a gutsy move by the president. >> did he really like make them understand more of what he wants in his plan? >> more. he moved the needle. he laid out a set of priorities that he said were nonnegotiable but said he was open to different means of achieving those ends. he addressed the core concerns. the issue of fiscal responsibility. a different tack than we heard before. he placed economic imperative. making middle class folks look you're paying for the uninsured

now. interesting tack. long sell. there's still a bit of a credibility gap. >> sounds like tax increases are coming somewhere. in terms of the misrepresentations that were out there during the month of august people called people out, he said he won't let people misrepresent what's going on and he said he would reach across the aisle. let's listen. >> now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together and show the american people that we can still do what we were sent her to do. now is the time to deliver on health care. >> fortunately there's not a lot of bipartisan support. how much does his legacy on this really depend on peeling off some republican votes? >> a lot. this campaign is someone who ill welcome back the antidote to the polarized politics of the bush

era. it's more than anything we saw during the bush era as we saw from joe wilson's shoutout. there's a lot of ground to cover. he realizes he needs to reclaim that bipartisan mantle. i don't think you're going to see broad partisan margins -- >> you'll never get joe wilson to work with democrats. >> don't think joe wilson is on table. the issue whether you can win some of the gang of six. any degree of bipartisan support is possible and that's important. every major social reform this country has passed has had some degree of bipartisan support. for this president to campaign on bipartisanship and then have no bipartisan support would send a bad message. >> forget joe wilson, he has his own problems with members of his own party which is why he said the public option, one of those are out there.

what about malpractice reform. you said the president might talk about this idea of malpractice reform. i thought you were nuts. out he comes with it last night. i owe you a beer. >> you owe me a beer. look, he did that. it was a major olive branch to republicans. unexpected. he talked a lot in the past. didn't include the house bills frankly because the trial lawyers are so influential in the democratic party. they will try to make mall practice cases out of jury pools and do some substantive outreach to make this bill more broad based. >> we'll see if we can pull some republicans over to his side. great to see you this morning. >> one the cobblestones is you could be forced out of your current insurance plan or forced to change dock trs.

>> a lot of people are worried if this government health care reform plan will go into effect i can't keep my insurance snoop we talk about the 46 million americans who don't have health insurance. remember the vast majority, 253 million americans like us do have health insurance. so what happens under health care reform? so the question we're looking at this morning what happens if you're happy with your health insurance, don't want anything to change? you somehow lose your coverage under health care reform. here's what president obama said about that last night. listen. >> if you are among the hunt dreds of millions of americans who already have health insurance through your job, or medicare, or medicaid, or the v.a., nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage of the doctor you have. >> right at the top of the speech. keep in mind there's no final bill yet but we poured through a bill that's gone through three house committees already and it says it protects the choice to keep current coverage.

now a similar passage in the senate bill is titled no changes to existing coverage, but, of course, there's no guarantee. remember that employers can change health plans at any time or drop coverage all together. in fact, the congressional budget office looked at the house bill and concluded by 2016 some 3 million americans who now have health insurance through their employers could actually lose it. it is really in the language. listen to this. in the past president obama has said if you like your health care plan you can keep it. period. last night there was a modification. he said nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have. it is a subtle but critical shift. so the question again, if you're happy with your health care insurance and want nothing to change, will you somehow lose coverage under health care reform? the verdict on this one? a little murky, true but incomplete. while there's nothing in any of the bills that we looked at that said employer based coverage

goes away employers ultimately have the final say. they can drop coverage so there are no guarantees. >> if there's a public option your employer could drop you and you can go with the government insurance plan, that's what some people are worried about? >> that's right. that's what a lot of people -- that's the core of a lot of the debate right now, actually. >> the debate goes on. john and i will be having a beer one of these days. i bet the president wouldn't talk about malpractice reform. you were right, i was wrong. >> you owe him a keg. >> then we have to invite everybody. >> bernie madoff, we've been detailing his properties. now he may have been involved in something else. was he coaching witnesses to lie to the s.e.c. christine romans with the latest chapter. something felonous.

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swindler bernie madoff, the weasel is in prison now for 150 years he'll be gone so he's got to sell his apartment. because they don't want him subletting for that long. and the government is selling it for $7.5 million. now, wait a minute. yeah before you go nuts. the kitchen is like brand new. like brand new because the only thing he ever cooked in there were the books. that's the only thing he ever -- >> that was a good one. uber weasel.

>> life styles of the rich and felonous is what i was coming up with. >> very clever. >> before you interjected. >> welcome back. bernie madoff in his own words telling colleagues how to dance around questions from the s.e.c. in a just released audio recording from 2005 the convicted swindler is heard coaching a potential witness about fooling regulators saying you don't have to be brilliant to get away with it. christine romans is following this story. >> he basically says look these s.e.c. guys will work there for five years and get a job in a hedge fund. don't give them too much information. don't give them anything more than the very bay six because you don't have to be too brilliant to deal with these guys. it shows what bernie madoff thought about the securities and exchange commission. >> he was right for a while. >> and this is an hour long call and he started the call by saying, first of all, this conversation never happened. when you start a telephone call like that you usually know

there's going to be some juicy stuff in there. hour long phone call in 2005 released by the massachusetts secretary of state, clearly bernie madoff did not hold s.e.c. examiners in very high regard. listen. casual. i never really heard him say out and out lie. i just heard him say don't give them too much information, these guys don't need to know. it's none of their business. at one point he said it's none of their business. >> he knew they were on his tail >> six times they opened up different investigations or lines ever inquiry to him.

he said look they are going ask a zillion questions. we laugh, what are you trying to write a book. he was very cocky with the s.e.c. the first complaint was in 1992. >> his strategy worked? >> obviously his strategy worked. >> christine romans, minding your business this morning. what do people who watched last night's speech think about it. we put to it the dial news on "the most news in the morning" coming up.

welcome back to "the most news in the morning." president obama laying out his plan for health care reform in a prime time speech to congress last night, so how is it playing with rank and file americans? our jim acosta watched the speech with some folks in virginia. so, what did you find out?

>> nobody shouted you lie which is a positive sign. our group had ten people for, ten against and a handful up in the air. what we wanted to find out is if the president is gaining supporters or losing them. which is it s it a personal issue? we asked the public research firm to put together a focus group, half democrats, half republicans. the participants turned up their dials for what they liked, down for parts of the speech they can do without. >> well, the time for bickering is over. the time for games has passed. >> the group dial it up when the president called for bipartisanship? >> now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together and show the american

people that we can still do what we were sent here to do. >> those feelings didn't last. the president batted down the false claim of death panels a split emerged. >> it's a lie, plain and simple. >> as the moved on to the public option the idea of giving the uninsured the choice of joining a government plan -- >> an additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not for profit public option available in the insurance exchange. >> the two sides were still apart. so is everybody pretty much in agreement we're seeing more hands now than we did before the speech? but in this room the president had won a few converts. >> he was very specific about what was going to be against the law, what would would be required of insurance companies. >> i'm thinking some is emotional, some is rhetoric, some is the fact that he's such an impressive individual. >> you want to go home and think about it? >> right. >> the party loyalists had their minds made up.

>> he could pull it off, but it depends on what the bill says. >> you're not buying it yet? >> not yet. >> folks are still skeptical because we've heard this before. barack obama you haven't seen before. this man can you deliver. >> you have to give obama a win. >> public opinion researcher believes the president helped his cause. >> a lot of people in our group who said he needed to talk about specifics and he gave people specifics. >> the biggest applause line for republicans in our focus group came when the president talked about malpractice reform. there were conservatives in the room who did not see that one coming. >> well, the president scored on that one then. jim acosta live in washington this morning. checking our top stories, more short fallout after republican congressman yelled "you lie" at him. within minutes his website server crashed. also his democratic opponent in south carolina rob miller says

he's raised more than $80,000 and counting much of it coming after wilson's comments. >> right now the space shuttle "discovery" is heading home scheduled to land in florida this evening. storms could force the crew to spend one more day in orbit. . buzz light year catching a ride back. nasa named him the longest serving astronaut in space. >> a deadly assault by mother nature in north western turkey, two days of torrential rains. 31 people are dead. homes and businesses under water. cars have been swept into the sea. one local official says the amount of rain that's fallen in the past two days is what normally falls over a six month period. >> there's an amazing picture of a guy riding on top of a bus and leaps over to the roof of another bus that was stationary.

>> president obama's make or break speech on health care reform. he had his work cut out for him. americans grew increasingly skeptical about the idea of reform. two people we heard from mrp katie abrams who questioned senator specter about the cost of these and ben hershman. both join me now with their reaction the president's speech. katie, what did you think of the speech last night >> you know what? i had mixed emotions about a lot of the things he said. some things were positive. i think about the possibility of tort reform that i think is a fantastic thing. but, i don't know. i'm still questioning a lot of things. i question everything and everyone. he's no exception. >> ben, first of all, let's get your thoughts. did you hear anything that you liked last night? katie said she liked the tort

reform. i have an inkling you like that as well? >> he didn't go far enough. he's talking about doing some tests in the field. i would like to hear what the american trial lawyers association has to say about health care reform. we hear an awful lot about the insurance industry, what about the same type of feedback from the lawyers? >> katie, let's go back to you. you said you had some concerns. what are they >> he had said during his speech that he wants choice and competition with the insurance companies. i don't understand how that's going to happen with a nonprofit entity like the government. the government can under price the insurance companies. who is going to win out over time? it may not happen in a year or two but a number of years down the road, obama said two years ago, 15 or 20 years there may be a single payer system. >> although he did say the public option wasn't necessarily a mandatory type everything, it was just one idea and maybe

there were some other ideas. did that give you any comfort? >> no. as we all know there are a bunch of different bills floating around right now. i want to see the actual bill. i want to see exactly what he was talking about. he had some great points last night. let's question, question everything from both sides of the aisle. >> ben, new polls out show people aren't necessarily opposed to health care reform, they are just fearful of what it might bring. one of the things you're concerned about is health care rationing. did the president say anything last night to allay those fears? >> no, not at all. he said things are not going to change. my question would be if you're going to be adding 30 to 40 million people to an already over burdened health care system, insufficient physicians, nurses, physicians assistants, et cetera, i would like to know what impact that's going to have when you throw 40 million more people into the system, and it tells me that you got to save

money somewhere, and frankly i think it's going to come with more rationing, so my question would be, what are the details on this rationing. we have rationing now. i predict there will be a lot more. i don't think the president, frankly, has been that forward and honest with the american people about that particular part of his plan. >> when you say we have ragging now, there's no question a lot of time bureaucrats get in the middle even in private insurance plans, patients and their doctors. katie, no question that many americans are fired up about this whole thing. let's go back to that town hall meeting where you suggested to arlen specter that, yes, people are paying attention. >> absolutely. >> i'm only 35 years old. i've never been interested in politics. you've awakened a sleeping giant. what are your going to do to take this country back to the

constitution. >> you captured the nation's attention. since that time and particularly with last night's speech has the president done anything to convince you that now is the time for some form of health care reform? >> you know, i never said personally that i think health care is in a great situation right now. it's not. we all know that. but we have the best health care in the world. you can get anything done in the united states. when i look at how everything is going, i'm a stay-at-home mom, i have a 4-year-old. if you have a little child, i'm comparing the government to the way a child is. if you have a 3-year-old and they have the toys. the government has their toys, auto companies, banks and now they are looking at another toy, the health care system. the toys that you already have you haven't been taking care why am i going give you a new toy when you can take care of what you have. >> ben, final question to you. what would make you happy to embrace health care reform?

>> what would make me happy is hearing more details, more facts and frankly like so many said before i want to see the numbers, at any point numbers to work out. right now we're getting an awful lot in the way of we'll get rid of waste. what does waste mean. until those questions are answered my opinion has not changed. >> great to hear opinions from both of you. thanks so much for being with us. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> coming up next on "the most news in the morning", one republican lawmaker in california getting hanky panky on the side and bragging about it. first rule when you do that make sure the microphone is not on. 38 1/2 minutes after the hour. we'll show it to you coming up.

>> i'm co-president darius goes west. it's a documentary we made. what we try to do with the trip get me out of the house and try to get my wheelchair customized on "pimp my ride." to me i'm on the road 200 days out the year. i travel with 11 of my friend all over the country in their rv. we go to colleges, schools and basically anywhere. i try to eat healthy but most of the time i end up eating at fast food restaurants. you shouldn't eat fast food all the time. i like to make sure the crew packs a lot of pillows. i take a lot of clothes and shoes. >> really, all those shoes? >> yeah. >> all right. >> here we go.

welcome back to "the most news in the morning." for anyone in the public eye it's a tiny but deadly weapon, the open microphone. >> how many times have you heard in this business don't say anything with a microphone on because you never know when it will be open. >> exactly. >> it cost one man, a republican state lawmaker, it cost him his job. michael duvall. first if you have children in the room, you may not want them to hear this. that's how wrong it is.

here's thelma gut red. >> reporter: this is michael duvall caught in a very embarrassing conversation. the lawmaker was unaware he was being recorded on an in-house channel at the state capitol, repeated repeatedly boasting about sexual exploits. the 53-year-old married two term legislature from orange county was talking about a liaison with a lobbyist who works for a firm that rate a utility company. he was also heard bragging about a second woman when the recording was made public, duvall issued an apology.

but after being removed from two committees he decided to resign. >> we have such huge issues before the legislature and to have this become a distraction, he felt his responsibility was to step aside and to resign and to go home. >> reporter: duvall had been awarded the ethics in america in 2000. he received a 100% grade from a family values group. and he has been an outspoken foe of gay marriage. >> the finish of michael duvall is not the fact that he's unfaithful to his spouse. what killed his career is that he talked about it in front of an open microphone. >> reporter: an episode that closed the door on his conversation in the california assembly. >> what could you say? i mean his poor wife. i don't know. we'll have to ask thelma what's

happened to his marriage because she must be a little upset right now. come on, say something. >> i just don't know what to say. it's 45 minutes after the hour. speed cell turn over. o clinically shown to visibly fade

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47 1/2 minutes after the hour. firefighters in southern california racing against a weather to clear away brush that's been fueling a 15-day long wildfire in los angeles. more warm, dry weather is

expected in southern california over the next couple of days. 250 square miles of territory have burned so far and sadly two firefighters have been killed. >> bracing for a long and unpredictable flu season, most colleges across the country are reporting flu-like illnesses among students. according to the american college health association, 73% have reported cases with the highest rate of schools in the southwest and midwest. most schools are testing to confirm it's the swine flu. but the cdc said all the flu circulating is swine flu. >> derrek jeter in good company this morning, legendary company. last night he tied the iron horse lou gehrig with 727 hits. jeter was saluted by the yankee stadium crowd. his teammates and players on the opposing team. >> his parents were in the

stands jumping up and down. he's a pretty cool guy. you just hope nothing taints him because you know there's not even a hint of steroid use. 's a great guy. >> terrific player. great night for derrek jeter but not for michele oudin. >> we'll talk to her in the third hour of "american morning." >> right now we want to head to atlanta, the home state of melanie, by the way and rob marciano. hi, rob. >> hey guys that was sad to see melanie do that but then i switched over to the yankee game and saw jeter break the record or tie the record. >> not that rob's a yankee fan or anything. >> he didn't know what to do. okay, thanks this is uncomfortable and let's move on. anyway i turn it off after that and unfortunately missed the three run homer that put the yankees tlind in the seventh inning. let's go to fred, hurricane fred, category 2 storm.

making a turn. that's good. already making that turn we talked about yesterday. still a strong storm. by the way when it was a cat 3 yesterday, national hurricane center putting out an interesting tidbit it's the strongest storm this far east since keeping records before satellite it's hard to keep track. as far as the official forecast for this thing, continues its path to the north and east, come on guy. come on guy. you don't want to cooperate with me. anyway, that's going a fish storm. let's talk about what's going on in texas. little bit of wet weather develop for austin and san antonio. long term nasty drought for those folks. heavy rain expected across florida and across the northeast you guys are in it. tomorrow will be pretty wet. every where south of say trend on the will be windy and surf will be up as well. >> thank you. we're going to read some of your comments on the president's

speech last night. they have been coming in and are interesting. 50 minutes past the hour.

welcome back. it's time to read some emails that we've gotten into our blog about the president's speech last night and especially about congressman joe wilson and his outburst. >> we got one, one said i hope south carolina is proud of their republican party. wilson must have thought he was back in south carolina talking

to his governor. >> so wrong. nicole says, wilson that guy is a shame to the house and to those who voted for him. he done have many fans. >> a lot of people talking about wilson. sue rights in president obama's speech was magnificent. i'm appalled by joe wilson. he should be censured. there's no excuse for his behavior. >> you know, christine romans sent us this e-mail. it was comment from political humor. say what you want about joe wilson, someone finally made joe biden look self controlled. >> and another one, the president repeated the same old rhetoric. he's like a traveling salesman. >> opinions on both sides. most of them are positive and a lot against joe wilson. >> go to our blog at cnn.com/amfix.

leave us your thoughts. >> also this morning we're checking the facts in the president's health care address. we have to check the facts. >> alina cho and the truth squad digging deeper on the claim that uninsured are causing people with private insurance to pay more. >> good morning, everybody. this is an interesting one for all of us who are currently paying for insurance. the claim from the president, like it or not, that we're all being hit with a hidden tax to support the uninsured. let's listen to exactly what president obama said last night. >> those of us with health insurance are also paying a hidden and growing tax for those without it. about $1,000 per year. it pays for somebody else's emergency room and charitable care. >> a hidden tax of about $1,000 a year. is it true? we hunted down the source. the study by the consumer advocacy group called families usa. the group found that the

uninsured rang up $116 billion in bills from hospitals, doctors and other providers. of that nearly 43 billion was never paid. that in turn got passed on to insurance companies in the form of higher rates for other services and those insurance companies turned around and passed that cost on to, you guessed it, you and me the taxpayer in the form of higher premiums. now families usa did the math, calculated the total cost, about $1,017 per family, $368 for individuals. the question again is the president's claim that we're all being hit with a hidden tax to support the uninsured true? the verdict on this one, true. wait for the sound. but incomplete. maybe even a little misleading. there's a hidden expense. president obama may have left a bit of a false impression that individuals are paying a tax of

$1,000 a year when, in fact, that cost is in the form of higher premiums. the bottom line, of course, not a tax, but call it what you want, the taxpayer is picking up the tab one way or another. it's interesting because we're fact chaek lot of the components of the president's speech doing. a lot of it has to do with the fact that, yes, 46 million americans are uninsured but the vast majority, 253 million of us are insured and lot of us have concerns about what health care reform will bring. >> the interesting thing is he dropped that number to 30 million uninsured because he wanted to make sure nobody thought he wanted to cover illegal immigrants. >> there's a lot of fuzzy math out there. >> everything is gray in this argument. >> i think the consensus is 46 million. but you're right. according to some people it's 30 million. >> thanks so much for that. >> it's 56 minutes past the hour. we'll be right back.

good morning to you. just about hit the top of the hour, 7:00 eastern time, i'm carol costello in for kiran chetry. >> i'm john roberts. here are the big stories that we'll be breaking down four in the next 15 minutes. president obama selling his health care plan in a make or break speech to congress and more importantly to the american people. the president keeping the public option on the table and calling on lawmakers to work together. did you go to bed last night with a better understanding of what this is all about? is entire am team breaking it down. >> one congressman has apologized to the president after this outburst in the

middle of the president's speech. >> our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. this too is false. the reforms -- the reforms i'm proposing would not apply to those who are illegal. >> you lie. >> not true. >> you heard him there, south carolina republican congressman joe wilson responding to president obama's claim that there would be no health care coverage for illegal immigrants. the white house says chief of staff rahm emanuel accepted wilson's apology over the phone. in other words wilson called the white house to apologize. could he end up being censured? >> plus a new tape surfaces. it's a disgraced wall street titan, bernie madoff. he's coaching a potential witness on how to trick the s.e.c. madoff starts out quote, obviously, first of all, this conversation never took place.

and you just got hear the rest of it. >> plus could terrorists really buy nuclear bombs on the black market and sneak them no an american city? just how realistic threat is that on the eve of september 11th we're looking in to frontal boundary of loose nukes. >> we begin the hour with an in depth look at the president's speech, the politic, the policy, what it really means and what's really at stake. president obama had two big objectives last night trying to convince you that his plan is the best way to fix our broken health care system and the end stalemate in congress. he extend an olive branch to his rivals but said if you don't want to roll up your sleeves and get to work get out of the way. >> this is the plan i'm proposing. it's a plan that incorporates ideas for many of the people in this room tonight, democrats and republicans. i will continue to seek common ground in the weeks ahead, but

know this, i will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than to improve it. >> the best political team on television is here to break it down for you. we'll look at what's next in the health care debate. but let's turn to elaine quijano, live at the white house. good morning. maybe not. >> thank you. thank you. >> reporter: trying to retake control of the run away health care debate president obama asserted. >> the time for bickering is over. the time for games has passed. now is the season for action. >> reporter: on the controversial public option, staunchly support by liberals, but decried as a government health care takeover by conservatives, the president, again, tried to carefully thread

the needle saying he prefers a bill including an option for government run care but add. >>it's only one part of my plan and shouldn't be used as a handy excuse. >> reporter: without mentioning republicans by name the president blasted what he called scare tactics by opponents, calling the notion of a bureaucratic death panel a lie and insisting illegal immigrants would not be covered, prompting an outburst from south carolina gop congressman joe wilson. >> you lie. >> reporter: wilson later called the white house to apologize. as for specifics, the president did mention what he supports, though much of it he's mentioned before. including a ban on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions. limits on out of pocket competences and a new insurance exchange meant to allow individuals and small businesses to shop for health insurance at competitive prices.

missing, though, were new details on how exactly to pay for the president's $900 billion plan, aside from what he's already said before, finding money by cutting waste and inefficiency in medicare and medicaid. >> while there remains significant details to be ironed out, i believe -- i believe a broad consensus exists for the aspects of the plan i just outlined. >> reporter: it was an emotional appeal as well. as the widow of the late senator edward kennedy looked on, president obama recounted kennedy's thoughts on health care in a letter delivered to obama after kennedy's death. >> what we face, he wrote, is above all a moral issue. at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country. >> reporter: now the president will try to keep the momentum going today with remarks on

health care. he's expected to sit down with some centrist democrats later here at the white house and he'll hit the road on saturday at a public rally in minneapolis to try to campaign for health care overhaul. >> we'll be watching closely to see what happens. elaine quijano for us at the white house. thanks. >> by all accounts it was a critical night for the president but now that his make or break speech is behind him what is his next move? you heard a little bit from elaine he'll talk again today. did he clearly explain what he wants to the american people? we have some reaction. so, do you think he changed any minds? >> i think we can't tell that right now. i want to show you some numbers we got last night. there are some short comings to a poll like this. first of all, this isn't all of america. this is from people who watched the speech. it's heavily weighted to democrats. we have some important numbers.

look at the post-speech numbers versus the pre-speech numbers on do you support the president's health care plan. pre-speech 53%, post-speech, 67%. one of the constituencies the president needed to talk to was his own party who kept saying step up, step up, you need to be the leader in this. so i think that's good news for him, even given it's just among democrats. if you look at that speech, that is the 67% approval of his health care plan exactly what president bill clinton got right after the speech he gave on health care and that, of course -- we don't want to go too far in extrapolating things. this was a speech that attempted to reach an awful lot of different constituents. >> running for president and days after he became president, barack obama relied heavily on changing the tone.

he reached out to republicans last night. is there anything in there that he can latch on to and say hey, okay, we can change our mine. >> i sincerely doubt it. had he taken the public option off the table, which he can't do because, obviously, the liberals want some sort of a federal government health care insurance -- but he also sort of said that before, so there was no kind of definitive moment. he did say here's john mccain thought that we should have this sort of high risk pool. he talked about the malpractice reform. that's a little -- that really was very, very small thing compared to actual tort reform. so, i don't think there were things there and i don't even think at this point, here's what i think the calculation is. yes, we really want bipartisanship. the fact of the matter is what the president wants more, what the democrats want more is a

bill. you go into 2010 and the democratic house, senate and white house can't turn up a health care reform that's a problem in the election. bipartisanship is great but a bill is better. >> that leaves the question where does the president go from here? does he ignore those republicans he knows isn't going to like jump on board and does he concentrate on democrats in getting a bill pass snood he'll concentrate on democrats. we did hear sort of outreach to republicans but we also, every other, you know, paragraph was sort of slamming the critics. he didn't say republicans in particular built everybody sort of got the point. i think there still will be oh, let's try to get together but time is awasting as they say and his problem has not been republicans. if they want the bills, if all the democrats want the bill they can roll it through. they have procedures that will let them do it. hat the president needs to do and it's very telling that the first thing he's doing is having that white house meeting with conservative and moderate democrats. >> we're getting all kind of

comments from viewers on our blog this morning. deborah says american people need health care reform. i'm proud of the leadership. disgusted by the partisanship on capitol hill. but president obama states nothing in his health care plan will force somebody to change their coverage if they are covered at work. they will be forced to change plans since his plan will tax small businesses that they can't afford coverage any longer. >> isn't the bottom line trust in government? he has to make people trust him, trust the government to do this thing right. i'm not so sure he did that. did he last night? >> i never looked at last night, make or break, here's where health care. no. things don't happen like this. this was sort of like the beginning of the make or break fall, maybe, if you want to do that. you can do this in a single speech. it's not quite enough, when something is as personal as health care -- it's one thing if the president says i want you to trust me on fast track trade

agreements. okay. but when you're talk about health care, people get it. so they understand how it works. so it's a much harder sell, and you have great philosophical differences, people believe the federal government should step in. other people think no, no business of federal government. >> let us know what you think about this. leaf us a comment at cnn.com/amfix. >> coming up next rudy giuliani at the half hour. ten minutes after the hour.

clybu . welcome back to "the most news in the morning." during his make or break health care speech to congress, president obama called out some lawmakers saying they used fear in this debate. >> what we've also seen in these last months is the same partisan spectacle that only hardens the disdain that many americans have toward their own government. instead of honest deaf bait we've seen scare tactics. >> so pushing forward, will we see any bipartisanship or just

more bad blood? let's bring in one democrat who has had her fair share of fiery town halls. thanks for joining us this morning. i think we should launch init and get it out of the way. we heard congressman joe wilson pointing to the president last night and calling hall of fame liar. a lot of people were shocked. a lot of viewers writing in and saying how wrong that was and how disrespectful. you actually tweeted about this, calling him, calling this incident the biggest disappointment of the evening, a total lack of respect shown by one member for the president and you added never acceptable to behave like a jerk. so, congressman wilson calls the president a liar. you call him a jerk in essence. and, you know, do these words on both sides belong in a civilized debate and can't we just stop this? >> well, first of all, i said he

behaved like a jerk, and i was not sitting in a chamber of congress listening to a presidential address. i said what i felt. i think he has the right to say what he feels. but in that place, in that time, it was shocking to most members regardless of party because i think it denigrates the institution. i think that's why he apologized so quickly and now he's done that and we should move on. good for him for apologizing. he admitted he made a mistake. enough said. let's talk about health care. >> absolutely. some people are saying he should be censured for this kind of behavior. do you think that sort of action should be taken >> no. i really think we've got more important things to do at this point. he said he was sorry. let's move on. the people of his district are the ones that have to make the decision about his behavior. i don't think we need to spend any more time on it in congress. >> let's talk about tissue

itself. will illegal immigrants be covered under the president's plan, and in section 246 on page 143 of the house bill the house bill states undocumented aliens will not be eligible for credits to help them buy health insurance. if this is written in the bill, why do some people continue to believe that illegal aliens will be covered by the president's plan? >> i'm not sure why. i know this. the president is committed to making sure that we are not giving federal benefits to any illegal immigrants. i think the vast majority of congress is committed to that. i think everyone needs to take a deep breath and realize we won't pass something that gives coverage to illegal immigrants and we need to focus on the parts of the bill that are real rather than conjure up untrue fax that, frankly, are designed to scare people and turn people against this legislation. >> i did notice that the president said 30 million people

in the country are uninsured. that was a change from the what, 46 million figure that he's been telling americans. and some say the reason for that is because he wanted to take the illegal alien question out of the picture. i think another concern that some people have is that the plan may call for covering legal immigrants, and maybe some people may be upset about that. >> well, if you're a legal -- if you're here legally, if you played by the rules, then we want you to buy insurance. and, of course, i think anyone who is in this country that's played by the rules and is here legally, if they are going to go to our emergency rooms and get care, we want them to take responsibility for that care. so -- >> even if they are not an american citizen? >> yeah. they should have to buy insurance. that's the part that they are covered in the bill is that if legal immigrants are here they have a mandate, they must participate in this process so we're not footing their bill when they go to the emergency

room for care. >> just to wrap it up, i mean your feeling after the speech, do you feel better about the coming debate in the country in light of the president's speech? >> i do. i think he cleared up a lot of the misinformation. i think he reassured the seniors that we all see medicare as a sacred trust, that we're not going to cut benefits under medicare. importantly, he explained how this public option, if that ends up being part of the bill, will be handcuffed. so it can't morph into a public mandate. i think he explained last night that we're not going subsidize this public option without weekend public money, it has to live on its premiums therefore a small part of the overall picture of health care reform. >> senator, thanks for joining us this morning. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> christine romans is coming up in a couple of moments. all this week we've been looking at bernie madoff's properties.

getting a sales pitch, would you like a lovely place at palm beach or the boat. how about what bernie madoff was saying to some of his clients when he knew the s.e.c. was hot on his trail. was he coaching witnesses? christine has tale of the tape coming up. it's 18 minutes after the hour. zyrtec-d® lets me breathe freer, so i can love the air™. (announcer) zyrtec-d®. behind the pharmacy counter. no prescription needed. i know landscaping, but i didn't know how wireless could help my business. i just don't know how wireless can help my business. tara showed me how i could keep track of my employees in the field and get more jobs done faster. i was blown away. i'm blown away. only verizon wireless has small-business specialists in every store to help you do business better. we should get you a hat. now buy any blackberry, like the new tour, at our lowest prices ever,

welcome back to "the most news in the morning", how to fool a federal regulator by bernie madoff. in his own words, he says you don't have to be brilliant to fool the s.e.c. just released phone conversation from 2005 has the convict coaching a witness on what to say when he's interviewed about madoff's fraudulent investment firm. his advice, just be casual. christine romans is with us now for more. >> basically don't say too much. you know, he said these guys sometimes come and ask a zillion questions and we just laugh and say what your trying to write a book? very cocky.

>> he was right. how many times was he looked at by the s.e.c. >> the first real complaint against him was in 1992. of course this went on until 2008. so bernie madoff, clearly does not hold the s.e.c. examiners in high regard. listen to what he says. none of their business. one of the reasons they say they don't want to give information you don't want to give information about your own firm if they work for your competitor. he's talking about this revolving door. you don't want that information to get out. for bernie madoff he didn't want his, the person on the other end of the phone to give any information because it would prove he was running this big scam. he began this conversation by saying, first of all, this conversation never really happened. which you just know you'll get

good stuff after that. hour long phone call. i thought it was interesting, partly through this phone call he was interrupted by somebody else. he said if i get another solicitation for charity i'll just kill myself. you think what an odd thing to say. you have a snapshot look at what this guy's life was like when he was still a big dog, with all the money and influence, just casually saying i'm going kill myself. >> then he's nothing more than another hairless chihuahua. >> actually, one thing just hit me. >> by the way, nothing against hairless chihuahuas. >> what i was wondering, if he's telling people what to say to the s.e.c., why aren't more people being prosecuted? >> that's a very good question. this person he was talking to worked for a company that settled with the state of massachusetts and it was the secretary of state of massachusetts that released this

call. so, maybe we haven't seen the end of some of these. we have not seen another arrest yet but i wouldn't close the book on this just yet. >> christine romans, minding your business this morning. 23 1/2 minutes after the hour. coming up the latest installment spies among us series. stay tuned. welcome to the now network. population: 49 million.

right now 1.2 million people are on sprint mobile broadband. 31 are streaming a sales conference from the road. eight are wearing bathrobes. two... less. - 154 people are tracking shipments on a train. - ( train whistles ) 33 are im'ing on a ferry. and 1300 are secretly checking email... - on a vacation. - hmm? ( groans ) that's happening now. america's most dependable 3g network. bringing you the first and only wireless 4g network. sprint. the now network. deaf, hard of hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com. welcome back to "the most news in the morning." tomorrow is september 11th. you know, it's an important time to ask tough questions like this, could terrorists get their

hands on a weapon that could do even more damage, maybe even nuclear material and smuggle it into the united states? >> today in our special series spies around us, paula newton is live for a closer look. we're talking about black market bombs. how worried should we be about that? >> reporter: consider this. in late 2004 an undercovered fbi agent asked an arms dealer if he could get highly enriched uranium for a terrorist attack. the guy didn't flinch. he said could it be done and here's why. in the words of president barack obama, loose nuclear materials could exterminate any city on earth. so take a good look at these shipping containers being scanned for illicit nuclear and radioactive material in belgium. almost 3/4 of them will end up on american soil. the threat is truly global.

>> we seized 50 containers here with all kinds of nuclear radioactive sources, and that in all kind of traffic coming from all kind of countries. >> reporter: that was last year alone. none turned out to pose a terror threat. but some 20 other ports worldwide are part of the u.s.-led mega ports initiative. front line defense to screen ship, rail and truck traffic. >> an image is transmitted back to the central alarm station. >> reporter: those images give detailed x-ray information backed up by manual inspections. the program is seven years old. the aim to equip 100 seaports by 2015. >> before we didn't know it. now we can do the screening and we're, indeed, surprised to find the sum of seizures. >> reporter: since 2001 database is kept on behalf of the

international atomic agency recording doubling of illicit trafficking in materials that could be used in dirty bombs, using radioactive material or in a few cases for nuclear devices. one favored route is from the former soviet union into georgia, on to turkey, and then through europe. incidents involving weapons grade nuclear material are very rare, just one could lead to a catastrophe. >> it's a game changer. it will change everything for a very long time. lives lost and infrastructure damaged. mounting to billions. but you have the political short fallout. who would know what happened. >> reporter: experts point out despite this program, we're still vulnerable. prime vice nuclear device encased in lead and uranium. >> have a ways to go to get to our ultimate goal, and that is

protecting maritime traffic anywhere it's going. >> reporter: now no one wants to be too alarmist. the risk is quite low. as we said in the report, it would only take one. >> a question for you, paula. you mentioned that, you know, maybe ate low risk concern, but i'm sure a lot of people are wondering about security around these ports, and if it's been, you know, if it's been made better? >> reporter: well, since 9/11 there's a huge push to try to screen some of that container traffic you were just looking at. even after 9/11 we tried to get a lot of ports in england, no way they wouldn't let us on the premise. the real concern is that some of these terrorist, some of these smugglers will hook up with insiders inside the state sponsored nuclear programs and that could really be alarmist. one note there they say it will take less than $10 million to

assemble a nuclear bomb and get it to the united states. >> fascinating report. thanks so much. tomorrow our spies among us series take a look at our security records since september 11th. how have we been table prevent a major terrorist attack. was at any time last administration, or are we just lucky >> we'll answer those questions tomorrow. we're tracking several developing stories right now. new details about the man who briefly hijacked a plane in mexico city. he told police he hijacked the plane because of yesterday's date 9-9-09, turn it around it's 6-6-06. he told reporters christ is coming soon and wanted to warn mexico city of an earthquake. the swine flu outbreak at weaker state university is only getting

worse. officials on the campus say in 2 1/2 weeks about 2,500 students have come down with possible cases of swine flu. but rather than test every case, the school says they are just following cdc guidelines. a republican lawmaker in california has quit his post after comments he made about his mistress went public. former assemblyman mike duvall was in a meeting in july and was whispering about his lover, unaware that the whole thing was being picked up by a microphone. parents, you may not want your children to hear this. >> wow. duvall left the statement on his website apologizing to voters, his colleagues, and his family too. >> you know, when we played that

the last time, carole, i was speechless. >> why would he even talk about it? >> why would you brag to a colleague of yours? >> well, i hope his mistress likes him. >> you don't want to pass judgment on anybody because everybody is open to temptation. >> in his make or break speech, president obama walked a fine line trying to reach out to republicans but said he had no time for those to score political points. what americans really want is for congress to start over from scratch. so, can the two parties ever see eye to eye? let's bring in former new york mayor rudy giuliani who has some thoughts on this. mr. mayor, good to see you. back in august, you did an interview with sean hannity on

fox. do you feel that there's still no hope for health care this year? >> if he changes it significantly, can do medical malpractice reform. what de, he said there would be a study of medical malpractice reform. >> he said as the bush administration wanted to do, there would be some experimentation on local levels so see if it could be done. >> there have been. texas has changed its whole system. there are 20% more doctors in texas. other states have done it. 12, 15 states have done medical malpractice reform. if he's serious he would do it like he's talking about this public option or nonpublic option. >> he has the trial lawyers association breathing down his neck. >> he should do it and take on the lobby rather than be afraid of it and explain how much it will cost. again, he's saying it's not going to cost any money, deficit neutral. >> he said the total price would be $900 billion and not add a

penny to the deficit. >> how do you do that? where are you going to take it from? deficit neutral, i know there was a little of political talk in there and little jingles, but the reality if you cover 30 million more people, which is down from 46 million. i don't know what happened to the other 16 million. >> a lot of them are illegal aliens. you got to pick a number. >> still cost money to cover 30 million. who does it come from. 30 million people. you're going to k306r million people. you got to take coverage away from somebody. who are you going to take coverage away from >> you don't believe there's inefficiencies in the system if addressed correctly could add up to that savings? and most likely some sort of tax increase. >> no one has ever reduced the cost of medical spending. it's always two to three times predicted. the president hasn't put a single specific on the table.

ate long road to saving $600 million, $700 million. when you give a speech like that and you don't give a single specific about how you save money on. excuse me if i don't say he has been very unspecific about how he'll save money. >> the president said the public option is a good tool. he think it's a valuable thing to have to insure people who don't have insurance right now. also left the door open that, okay, maybe we don't do a public option, saying there are other ways to do it. if he were to drop the idea of a public option, do you think he could get more of your colleagues on board? >> he would also have to drop the government having a big role in whatever this other thing is that he's going to do. he said whatever option he comes up the government will have a role in it. that's really the crux of the problem. the government has too big of a role in health care right now. the reform that's necessary that would really help would be to take the government out and to

increase private insurance by having interstate purchase of insurance which he didn't mention at all by really doing tort reform, by creating a tax break rather than a tax increase. >> but if the government son lie creating this exchange where you bring together a group of health insurance providers where people can go in and shop is that a bad thing >> again, john, very unspecific. the president throws out this idea, he says i might back away from the public option. he didn't go quite that far. but the government is still going to be involved. before i can tell you whether i'm going to agree, you have to tell me how is the government going to be involved? you also have to explain to me how you're going to save $600 million, $700 million whatever that number actually is. i haven't seen a single example. this man has added more to national debt than any president in history. so, i mean -- >> you're going to get argument from people who will say that's what he was left and had to cover from the previous

administration. >> i never got that excuse when i took over as mayor. it lasted well into a week. whatever he was left with, what he's done has not cut expenses. what he's done is increased the national debt so it's now $9 trillion. this will add another trillion dollars to it. >> you'll get a huge argument on the debt thing. >> who passed a $700 million second stimulus package. >> and some will say who got us in a car we didn't need to go into. >> the debt has increased to $9 trillion since bush left office. it's increased more than any other president in history. >> where did it go during the bush administration. >> not as much. this is historic increase in debt. >> there's a political component. many analysis has been done if there's not a health care bill passed the democrats could lose

between 20 and 40 seats. it would be good for republicans to oppose anything to say democrats had the house, senate and presidency couldn't get anything done. >> he doesn't need republicans to pass it. his problem is with democrats. he can't get democrats to agree because he wants to spend way too much money because he's not being specific on how much he's going to save. there's a public option and not a public option. we're covering 46 million now 30 million. the lack of specificity and this is hurting him. republicans don't make a difference to this debate. the opposition here has been among democrats. he has enough votes to pass this. republicans have very strong ideas about increasing private options, doing tort reform. he hasn't brought republicans into this at all. he asked for a meeting and didn't have a meeting. republicans have no part in this. >> we got to go. just before we go, are you or are you not going to run for governor? >> we'll see.

>> you're out there like you're campaigning. >> no i'm not. >> you're saying all the things you would say in a campaign. >> we'll worry about that after this next election. >> mr. mayor, good to kick things around with you. you can read the president's speech and get reaction from both sides of the aisle. we want to know what you think about the speech and what the mayor just had to say. go to cnn.com/amfix. >> cnn.com/amfix. dr. gupta rides along with an elite combat crew in afghanistan. i mean the story is spectacular. fascinating. you'll want to see it. it's 40 minutes past the hour.

g. regions - it's time to expect more.

do you think derrek jeter is the luckiest man on the face of the planet. >> he's put a lot of hard work into this. >> he's got good looks, talent, classy and now got something else. >> what is it, luck is the combination of when talent meets good planning? >> he's got good planning. >> he does. >> to play his position you have to plan. he pulled even last night on the all time yankee hit list with a man who once famously said those words the luckiest man on the face of earth, lou gehrig. he singled in the snept inning for his 2,700 hit. that tied lou gehrig for the most ever in a yankee uniform.

>> tennis phenom, melanie oudin did not have as good of a night as derrek jeter. the number nine seed of denmark defeated the 17-year-old american in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. the tennis star never expected to get as far as she did so it was a terrific tournament for her. her hotel reservation ran out mid-week so she had to pack up and move to the next hotel. can you imagine? what hotel would throw her out? coming up, melanie will be here to talk about her amazing ride. the hotel that she will probably never book herself in again. how stupid is that? >> call them now and complain for her. >> you find her a room. we got the guy in california who is whispering about his affair over a live mic in the legislature and a hotel in new york tossing out this tennis

phenom. >> the world is a horrible place. >> can't deal with this. >> let's talk about ellen. she's joining "american idol." ellen degeneres will be replacing paula abdul. she'll host her syndicated talk show but she called being an "american idol" judge a dream job. no word on whether she will dance on the show, but i would like to see simon judging her dancing. that would be interesting. and brutal. although she's a pretty good dancer. >> she is. she has that little groove thing going on. >> rob marciano is monitoring all of the extreme weather for us. he's at the "weather center" in atlanta. can you believe the hotel threw melanie out >> it reminds me of a country sancbecause song here in atlanta. beer is good, god is great and people are crazy.

>> they lives north of where you are in marietta. >> i wouldn't kick her out. hey, she played well. and congratulations. i wouldn't kick her out if i was managing the hotel. >> i'm going home. you two need a talk show. >> check out this storm. south of new york. these folks in new york want to kick this thing out of here. it will hang around for a couple of days. coastal flooding, high surf as well. that's what the forecast calls for with this particular system. also, down to the south we're looking at some showers across parts of florida. that may be a problem. i want to talk briefly about what's going on with fred. hurricane, category 2, it was a 3. this will be a fish storm. i wouldn't worry too much about fred. i don't think it will bother anybody too much. one thing about what's going on with the space shuttle, trying to land tonight at 7:05.

right now looks pretty good. isolated showers. they should land this. y at 7:05. the space shuttle was to help the hubble telescope. this cluster of galaxies. that's an actual galaxy with more stars as carl sagan would say billions and billions of stars out there. cool stuff. congratulations. hope the shuttle gets home tonight. fred looks like a fish storm. and cornell has an excellent school of hotel management as well. >> rob, thanks so much. we'll see you again soon. >> 49 minutes after the hour. dr. sanjay gupta has been doing some amazing coverage in afghanistan. doctors on the front lines treating injuries, not only american troops, coalition troops as well, but even just, you know, little kids who fall

down a hill and hit their head really hard. he rides along with an elight combat medical crew. this story you got to see. it's coming up on the months news in the morning. it's an idea that makes america strong. it's a fair day's pay for a hard day's work. it's health insurance when you're sick or injured. it's job security to provide for your family. it's the fabric of a sound economy. it built the middle class. and it's what the employee free choice act is all about... letting workers choose to join a union to earn better pay and benefits. the employee free choice act. it's time

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that's 105 meals free. call or click now. welcome back to the most news in the morning. you've heard of urgent care, but you've never seen doctors this fast. we're paging our dr. gupta. on the other side of the world,

our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, takes you into the most dangerous part of afghanistan with a ridealong with the fastest combat medics on earth. >> reporter: one hour, that's it. minutes began ticking down when word came that two men, both civilians, about 40 miles from here, were critically wounded. without help, they could bleed out and die. >> if they're an urgent patient, we have time lines where we need to be moving extremely fast. i mean, within minutes. we don't mess around. when that bell rings, we run and we get out here, we get all geared up and we take off. >> reporter: right now we're in a medevac blackhawk helicopter traveling at least 1,200 feet off the ground. we know there are two patients who have been stabbed. that's all we know. we don't know how bad off they are. it's what these guys do. i'm with an elite medical dustoff crew. the name goes back to vietnam. it was the radio emergency call

signal to chopper in the combat flight medics. they are a go team, 24/7, they steel moments of time to save lives. >> our job is to get people up and out of here in those seconds. because seconds count. >> reporter: for nate and his team, most missions are about rescuing american military. >> they're leaving this gate every day on foot in vehicles, knowing what's out there. and if they can do that, i'll do anything to make sure they get out all right. >> reporter: but today the call came to save afghan locals. it's a critical part of the u.s. strategy to win the hearts and minds of afghan civilians. we are now into the golden hour. most trauma patients who die of blood loss die within an hour unless we can stabilize them. so we have 20 minutes to fly. 20 minutes to get the patient on the chopper, 20 minutes to get the patient to a hospital. it's one golden hour.

>> when i got in the aircraft, my mind-set is airway, oxygen, stabilization of the chest. fine-tuning this down to the very last second is the most important thing. >> reporter: but with the dustoff teams, the challenge is not just getting to the patients, but about getting out of there safely. >> this is probably the most dangerous place in afghanistan. couldn't see any security out yet, and here we are coming into this area, you know, you can see it when we're going, there's six-foot-high cornfields and water and mud everywhere, not very many ways for us to get out of there real quick if we had to. so i was worried. >> reporter: for so many reasons, that fear is always looming. he surprised me when you pulled out this picture. these are his three boys. >> i've discussed it with my wife, written a letter for her to read to them. when it comes to that kind of thing, you hope that they're proud of you.

one of those things you try not to think about. >> i can imagine. must have been a tough letter to write. >> it was. it was a real -- it probably took me about -- being a dad is probably the most privileged and most important job you could ever have, no matter what you do. i mean, you know this. but at the same time, showing them what being a man's really about, fighting for your country, sacrificing for your country. things that are more important than, you know, staying home and avoiding this kind of thing. >> reporter: as for today's mission, daffney and his dustoff crew cheated the clock again. it's now clear the two men they flew in to save will survive their terrible wounds. and nate daffney is expected to be here in afghanistan until the beginning of next year. it can be a very busy job for them. up to nine to ten of those

missions in a single day. i want to give you an update on the little boy malik we've been covering. he had a bit of a fever, which can happen after an operation like this, but it really did slow him down for a period of time, which made the next couple of days even more impressive. as you see, he is walking there. remember, we were concerned that he might not have any strength on the left side of his body, but he is putting weight on that left leg, able to walk with just a little bit of assistance from his father. we've also got a very special report about malik tomorrow, uncovering some details about his story which we just uncovered and have not yet shared. remarkable stuff. certainly stay tuned for that. back to you. >> sanjay gupta with a terrific story this morning. and all this week on "a.c. 360," anderson cooper, dr. sanjay gupta, and michael ware are live from the battle region. only cnn is live with exclusive reports. it's "a.c. 360" tonight at 10:00 eastern. we're hearing from a lot of people on this health care stuff this morning, aren't we? >> a lot of you have a lot to

say, to keep them coming. coming up, we'll be talking to two doctors. president obama talked a little bit about how he wants to pay for health care reform, so what kind of burden will that place on hospitals? we'll ask those two doctors when we come back. just about 8:00 eastern. good friends -- we compare our progressive direct rates, apples to apples, against other top companies, to help you get the best price. how do you do that? with a touch of this button. can i try that? [ chuckles ] wow! good luck getting your remote back. it's all right -- i love this channel. shopping less and saving more. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

good thursday morning to you. it is september the 10th. thanks for joining us on the most news in the morning. i'm john roberts. >> and i'm carol costello in for kiran chetry. here's what's on tap this morning. president obama drawing new battle lines on health care reform. he says it's time for congress to stop bickering and start

delivering on a health care bill. we have reaction and analysis of the president's make or break speech and where he goes from here. he's sorry. republican congressman joe wilson apologizes for heckling the president in the midst of his health care speech last night. >> there are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. this, too, is false. the reforms -- the reforms i'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally. >> you lie! >> it's not true. >> whoops. the south carolina congressman could end up paying a political price for his outburst. we'll tell you what his colleagues from south carolina have got to say about that. plus, could terrorists really buy nuclear bombs on the black market and sneak them into an american city? how realistic a threat is that? on the eve of september 11th, we're looking into the problem of loose nukes in our "spies

among us" series. but we begin this morning with president obama's bold call to action on health care reform, one that laid out his vision and challenged what he called the scare tactics of his opponents. the president also touched on the hotly debated so-called public option, a government-run insurance program. >> some have suggested that the public option go into effect only in those markets where insurance companies are not providing affordable policies. others have proposed a co-op or another nonprofit entity to administer the plan. these are all constructive ideas worth exploring. but i will not back down on the basic principle that if americans can't find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice. >> the best political team on television is here to break things down for us this morning. elaine quijano is live at the white house. candy crowley looking at what's next for the president's top domestic issue. but first let's turn to elaine. elaine, the white house promised specifics in this speech. did the president deliver?

>> reporter: well, you know, not exactly, according to some, john. this was a high-stakes speech, coming on the heels of that politically bruising month of august and the president very much wanted to hit the reset button on health care. >> thank you! thank you. >> reporter: trying to retake control of the runaway health care debate, president obama asserted -- >> the time for bickering is over. the time for games has passed. now is the season for action. >> reporter: on the controversial public option, staunchly supported by liberals but decried as a government health care takeover by conservatives, the president again tried to carefully thread the needle, saying he prefers a bill include an option for government-run care, but added -- >> it is only one part of my plan and shouldn't be used as a handy excuse for the usual washington ideological battles. >> reporter: yet without mentioning republicans by name,

the president blasted what he called scare tactics by opponents, calling the notion of a bureaucratic death panel a lie and he insisted illegal immigrants would not be covered, prompting an outburst from south carolina gop congressman joe wilson. >> you lie! >> reporter: wilson later called the white house to apologize. as for specifics, the president did mention what he supports, though much of it he's mentioned before, including a ban on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions, limits on out-of-pocket expenses, and a new insurance exchange, meant to allow individuals and small businesses to shop for health insurance at competitive prices. missing, though, were new details on how exactly to pay for the president's $900 billion plan. aside from what he's already said before, finding money by cutting waste and inefficiency

in medicare and medicaid. >> and while there remains some significant details to be ironed out, i believe -- i believe a broad consensus exists for the aspects of the plan i just outlined. >> reporter: it was an emotional appeal as well, as the widow of the late senator edward kennedy looked on, president obama recounted kennedy's thoughts on health care in a letter delivered to obama after kennedy's death. >> what we face, he wrote, is above all a moral issue. at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country. >> reporter: now, the president will try to keep the momentum going today with remarks on health care later this morning. and then at some point today, the president is expected to sit down with a group of centrist democrats here at the white house. then he'll take his sales pitch to the road, he's going to be holding or attending a public

rally in minneapolis on saturday, john. >> he's trying to get the ball rolling and there are people on the other side who are trying to roll it back on him. we'll see how this goes, elaine quijano this morning, thanks so much. his outburst stunned the house chamber this morning. everyone's talking about republican congressman joe wilson, heckling the president last night by shouts "you lie!" during his speech, in case you were living in a cave. here it is again. >> there are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. this, too, is false. the reforms -- the reforms i'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally. >> you lie! >> it's not true. >> the south carolina congressman did apologize in a statement saying, this evening, i let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president's remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. while i disagree with the

president's statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. i extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility. and wilson's faux pas has been a windfall for the man he defeated in last year south carolina's congressional delegation. democrat rob miller has said he's raised more than $8,000 and cou counting. >> and james clyburn from south carolina also looking at the rules now to see if maybe there may be some sort of punishment. >> but as candy crowley just pointed out, congressman wilson is very popular in his district and maybe some of his constituents weren't so upset about what he said. >> we can talk about all of that coming up. by all accounts, it was a critical night for the president, but now that his make or break speech is behind him, what is his next move? >> so did he clearly explain what he wants to the american people? that's one of the questions we want answered from our senior political correspondent, candy crowley, who joins us now with

reaction. let's talk about congressman wilson for just a second. what you were saying is pretty interesting. he's very popular in his district. >> he is. the last time he ran last year was around his lowest, 54, 55%. before that, he's been scoring in the 60% range. it's a conservative district. so if you're looking at the election, perhaps he will have a stiff challenge, but the history suggests that he's pretty popular there. >> and indeed, congressman clyburn and he have butted heads over the years. >> yes, they've exchanged words before. >> and as you pointed out, the president also called his critics, in essence, liars. >> unnamed. you can sort of get up and say my critics are all lies, but then if you look at the president and go, "you lie," that's a bit over the top. a time and place for everything, and this was neither the time nor the place. >> and he came out quickly and said it was inappropriate. >> he knew that. >> what about the president? did he change any minds?

>> i think the question may be, did he stiffen any spines? we have some proof in the democratic party, and that's one of the constituencies he wanted to address. we've got some polling numbers, that when you look at them show that before the speech, there was some question -- this is, do you favor to the president's health care plan. 53%, pre-speech, said they did. 67% said this post-speech now. the caveats, these are only people who watched the speech and it is heavily democratic. but for the president, the good news is he really needs to convince the democrats. and going into this speech, it was all about, he needs to lead and why isn't he out in the forefront and he needs to hit back against these critics and he let them seize the conversation. and this, apparently, at least for those democrats watching this speech, he did step up to the plate. so if he can coalesce the democrats -- >> what about the republicans? >> he came into office, campaigned, came into office saying he wanted to change the

tone in washington. all candidates say that, don't they? >> they do. >> and he wanted to forge a new spirit of bipartisanship and it's just not there. >> it isn't there. and the white house and the democrats, many of them, are sort of past the point where they care. and here's the calculation. the president looks back at bill clinton and trying to get his health care plan passed. what happened? he didn't. what happened in the next election? newt gingrich revolution came along. so, look, it's pretty simple. if an all-democratic dominated capitol hill and a democratic white house can't get health care reform, voters probably won't like that next year. so if he has to do it without a single republican vote, i think there were very clear signals, by the way, last night from the president, that's exactly what he intends to do. when he said that phrase about, i'll work with anybody, but let me tell you something, if your only thing to stop it, then i've got no time for you. he's like, if we've got no time

in the senate and i've got 51 votes, i'm all in for that. i think that was the very clear message last night. bipartisanship, that's great, threw out some republican names, but the overall message, we'll do it without you. >> candy, thanks. coming up, we'll break down whether president obama did get his message across and cut through the confusion with democratic strategist james carville and susan molinari, former republican congresswoman from new york. it's 11 minutes past the hour. time to tell you about some other stories new this morning. firefighters in southern california racing against the weather to clear away brush that's been fuelingi inin ina 1 wildfire near los angeles. crews shored up fire lines last night thanks to better weather conditions. more warm, dry weather is expected in southern california over the next few days. 250 square miles burned so far and two firefighters have been killed. bernie madoff in his own words, telling colleagues how to dance around questions from an s.e.c. investigation in a just-released audio recording from 2005.

the convicted swindler is heard coaching a potential witness about, well, not giving federal regulators who are investigating him everything that they were looking for. >> the convicted swindler's counsel also included this little gem of advice, "just be casual." and the economic recession has apparently given rise to a bumper crop of marijuana. for the first eight months of this year, law enforcement officials say police have hacked their way through billions of dollars worth of pot grown in california and four other top marijuana-producing states. some farmers who have fallen on hard times are supplementing their income by growing marijuana. james carville and susan molinari just ahead on the most news in the morning.

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good morning, washington. where it is currently cloudy, with a temperature of 65 degrees. later on today, showers and it's only going to be three degrees warmer. a high of 68. looks like it's more partly cloudy right there. president obama demanding action from congress to fix the nation's health care system. but did his prime-time address work? here to break it all down this morning, senior political contributor and democratic strategyist, james carville, and former new york congresswoman, sus susan molinari. susan is with a firm that lobbies legislative matters, including health care, but she does not personally have any health care clients. thanks for joining us, we'll see you next time. james, you hate this idea of this being called a make or

break speech, but certainly the president needed to change the game last night. did he? >> he helped himself. but i think he had two good days. i think he made an ordinary address to some school kids into a national event and last night he did what he knew we could do. he delivered an excellent speech. now comes the phase where he's got to put this together. and i think he helped himself, but we've got to wait and see. if you're a dremocrat, feeling little b little bit better this morning. >> what if you're a republican, susan? he threw out this idea john mccain had during the campaign last year. did he move the ball at all with republicans, do you think? >> i think he did a couple of things. i do agree with james. i think he did help himself. i think he outlined -- i think the speech was helpful in that he outlined the moral imperative

to changing health care, something that i think if he had done earlier in the summer, the democrats wouldn't have found themselves sort of in the throes of the tirades of emotion that they did throughout this summer. so i think he did that well. but i think for republicans, and quite frankly, i think, and we'll find out as this day proceeds, for a lot of conservative democrats and people throughout this country, he left two major unanswered questions. number one, again, how do we pay for this $900 billion program through elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse in medicare and medicaid. everybody knows that's not where we're going to get this. and the trigger to how we're going to pay for this, if it goes over the line, it's going to trigger and we're going to shut the program down. nobody believes that's going to happen either. and the big snicker line of the night, which was, "there are some significant details to be ironed out." everyone's always said they want health care. republicans were holding up bills, because they have five bills they have proposed that have details, and now it's time to flush out those details and get this bill passed.

>> another big part of argument, what susan talked about, this idea of medical malpractice reform, is also the public option. the president last night seemed to indicate that it's not a must have for him. let's listen to how he put that. >> for decades, the driving idea behind reform has been to end insurance company abuses and make coverage available for those without it. the public option is only a means to that end. and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal. >> the public option is only a means to that end. james, he said we should be open to other ideas as well. he's trying to put himself in the middle here between democrats on the left who say that we need to have a public option and then conservative democrats and democrats in the senate who say, well, no, we don't think that a public option is the best idea. can he bring those two sides together? >> so we have a politician who's kind of trying to play it down the middle, anything new about that? no. what the president is saying is

that's the objective here, to get these people insured and the public option is the vehicle. if you have a soft trigger or any mechanism they're talking about and people get insured with private insurance, who cares. that'd be great too. but i think the message is, is that if you have this idea that can be implemented, that that will help get more people insured. and that's what the president's objective is, and it does make some sense. >> but do you think again, and susan, can he pull both sides together in this debate? >> there's competing letters that are going out today and have been going out all week where there's a significant amount of democrats who said, we're not going to vote for any bill that doesn't have a public option in it and there are letters that are coming out, as late as yesterday afternoon, by conservative democrats in the house, not even in the senate, saying if there is a public option, we're not considering it. look, here's how i think the play's coming down. senator baucus announced yesterday that he's ready to file his bill and start parking it up, start moving it through

committee in the next few weeks. i think that has to indicate that he got the signal from president obama that this is the plan that's going to start moving and this is the plan that's going to happen. i think there is going to be a effect. but a lot of signals were sent out that the public option is not something that's going to be considered by the democratic party. >> last night, for a little while, the speech looked like those town halls we saw in august when senator wilson from south carolina had a little bit of a rejoirnd when the president said that health care would not be extended to illegal immigrants. >> the reforms i'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally. >> you lie! >> in an instant, congressman wilson became a poster boy for bad behavior. james, what did you think of that whole thing? >> well, he's from charleston and i've been to charleston for a number of occasions and people there are known for their graciousness.

he's rude, and on top of that, he's stupid. he's very stupid, because the bill specifically doesn't provide for that. it's one thing to have a town hall republican sitting in congress, it's another to think that a member of congress is that ignorant to the facts of the bill, which he is. >> susan, what do you have to say to that? >> the stand-up, sit-down, boos, that happens whether we agree or think it's appropriate, in no matter speech -- >> what did you think of his behavior? >> he, obviously, went over the line. it's not appropriate for a member of congress to say that the president is a liar, under any circumstances, especially in the house chambers over a joint session of congress. and he rightly called the president and i guess offered his apologies to the white house. >> what about james said, did he not read the bill? what about this idea that -- >> there's a lot of disagreement. congressman joe wilson is not the only person that there could be potential for illegal immigrants to be covered under some aspects of this bill as this bill moves through its process. he's not the only one that

believes this will not be in the final version. but to call the president a liar clearly steps over the line. >> final word, james. there is some -- there's an issue of enforcement here. can they enforce it? >> exactly. >> if it's in the bill, i don't know if he believes that, but the man demonstrated that he was not only rude, but he was ignorant. and that's in the bill. and poly-fact, everybody in the world has determined that. the guy ought to take two weeks off and maybe he and mark sanford can go down and have a convention of south carolina republicans or something. >> james carville, susan molinari, good to see you this morning, thanks so much. >> great to be here. >> i knew somebody would go there eventually. >> yeah. and it had to be james. >> had to be james. do you know what goes into your credit score? gerri willis is watching your money this morning. she'll tell you what exactly they put in there to make it good or bad and how kit hurt you.

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♪ welcome back to the most news in the morning. new legislation and stricter credit standards are making it hard to even qualify for a credit card and that makes your credit score more important than ever. >> our personal finance editor gerri willis is watching your money. and she joins us this morning. how do we make our credit scores work for us as opposed to against us? i see those commercials, with the guy playing guitar. >> well, don't go there yet. but let's start with what people believe that's not really true. a lot of people have wrong ideas about their credit score out there. they think that there's only one credit score.

not true. there are many. in fact, each of the three major credit bureaus has a score. equifax, experian, transunion. the most important one is your fico score and you can get that online at myfico.com. people think canceling a credit card increases your score, not true. the opposite can happen. you can reduce your credit score because your credit history looks shorter rather than longer. and people think, i want to wait until that next raise, because that's going to help my credit score. not true. higher salary doesn't have anything to do with your credit score. it's not about your net worth, not about your income, it's about how you're handling your credit. >> let's say we're not handling our credit in the best way and our score is something we wouldn't even want to show to our mothers. how can you raise your credit score? >> that's the key. first off, forget those retail store credit cards. at the end of the day, they're going to pull your score once they give you the 10% off or whatever, and that could make your credit score go down.

the big kahuna, pay on time. your fico score, a third is dependent how well you spepay o time. and spend only 10% of your credit limit. the amount you're going to revolve, it should be 10% of your limit. if you have a $3,000 limit, you should be spending $300. i'm no fan of revolving. and check out your credit score once a year for free. free website is annualcred annualcreditreport.com. the free one, no strings tac s attached, annualcreditrural rou route.com. >> a couple times, i took out loans on things i didn't need to borrow money so i could pay the money back quickly and establish a good credit score. >> really good things. one of the most important things

they consider, how are you paying your credit cards. >> it's an important part of your score. >> these were not expensive things, by the way. >> how long does it follow you, by the way? let's say you have a bad credit score, what you did to cause it to be bad happened five or ten years in the past. >> you can turn your credit score around in literally months if you do the right thing. the main thing you want to avoid is not paying a debt, a 30, 60, 90-day delinquency. those are problems that will dog for you for a while. but once you turn that around and start paying on time, you can turn that score around pretty quickly. it's not like bankruptcy that will be on your record for ten years. >> gerri willis with good tips for us this morning. melanie oudin's cinderella story came to an end at the u.s. open last night. she'll join us in a few moments. terrific u.s. open for her by any measure. as well, the latest installment in our series "spies among us." the black market for nuclear bombs. could terrorists get ahold of one?

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we're back with the most news in the morning. tomorrow is september 11th, an important time to ask tough questions like this. could terrorists get their hands on a weapon that could do even more damage, maybe even nuclear material, and smuggle it into the united states? >> today in our special series, "spies among us," our paula newton is live for a closer look. and paula, we're talking about black market bombs. >> reporter: yeah, john and carol, one of the most chilling accounts i've come across is an undercover fbi agent asking an armenian arms dealer if he could get him highly enriched uranium so he could bomb the new york subway. the guy said yes, he didn't even flinch, and here's why.

in the words of president barack obama, loose nuclear materials could exterminate any city on earth. so take a good look at these shipping containers being scanned for illicit nuclear and radioactive material in antwerp, belgium. almost three quarters of them will end up on american soil. the threat is truly global. >> we've seized 50 containers yet with all kinds of nuclear, radioactive sources. and that in all kinds of traffic coming from all kinds of countries. >> reporter: that was last year alone. none turned out to pose a terror threat. but antwerp and some 20 other ports worldwide are now part of the u.s.-led megaports initiative, a frontline defense to screen ship, rail, and truck traffic. >> an image is transmitted back to the central arms station.

>> reporter: those images give detailed x-ray information backed up by manual inspections. the program is seven years old, the aim, to equip 100 sea ports by 2015. >> before, we didn't know it. now we can do the screening and we are indeed surprised by the number of seizures and the importance. >> reporter: since 2001, databas databases kept recorded roughly a double of illicit trafficking in materials that could be used in dirty bombs, using radioactive material or in a few cases for nuclear devices. one favored route is from the former soviet union into georgia, on to turkey, and then through europe and ports like antwerp. incidents involving weapons grade nuclear material are very rare, but just one could lead to catastrophe. >> it's a game changer. it will change everything for a very, very long time. lives lost and infrastructure

damaged, accounting to billions. but you also have the political fallout. who would know what happens? >> reporter: excerpts point out despite this program, we are still vulnerable. improvised nuclear device in lead and uranium do not even carry a signature. >> we have a ways to go to get to our ultimate goal and that is detecting maritime traffic anywhere it's going. >> reporter: there's a ways to go on that. many ports still to be secured, a lot of cargo still to be checked. we don't want to be too alarmist about this. the incidence, the vulnerability is still really quite low. at the same time, it only takes one. john, carol, could cost, researchers say, as little as $10 million to produce a nuclear weapon to detonate in the united states. >> that is troubling. paula newton for us this morning, paula, thanks so much. tomorrow, our "spies among us" series takes a look at our

security record since september 11th. how have we been able to prevent a major terrorist attack since 2001. was it measures that the last administration took or is it al qaeda on the run? that's tomorrow on "spies among." there are new details about the man who briefly hijacked a plane in mexico city. mexican officials say he's a 44-year-old bolivian, a former drug addict, and an alcoholic who is now a minister. he told police he hijacked the plane because of yesterday's date, 9/9/09. turn that around, and of course, it's 6/6/6. he told reporters, christ is coming soon and he told officials he wanted to warn mexico city of an earthquake. originally, reports said there were three hijackers instead of just one. plus, a republican lawmaker in california has quit his post after comments he made about his mistress went public. former assemblyman mike duvall was at a meet iing in july and s whispering about his lover,

unaware the whole thing was being picked up by a microphone. parents, we'll play this, but you may not want your kids to hear it. >> so i've been getting into spanking her. >> you are? >> yeah, i like it. >> does she? >> yeah, yeah, she goes, i know you like it. i said, yeah, because you're such a bad girl. >> he left a statement on his website apologizing to voters, his colleagues, and his family. and the swine flu outbreak at washington state university just getting worse. officials say in just 2 1/2 weeks, about 2,500 students have come down with possible cases of h1n1, but rather than test every case, the school says they're just going to follow cdc guidelines. so we know there's politics in play on both sides of the aisle when it comes to president obama's health care pitch. but will the plan really work for health care professionals? the doctors, nurses, and surgeons who take care of all of us. for some expert opinion, let's bring in dr. bernadine healy. she's the health editor of u."u.

news & world report" and dr. lee san sanders, the assistant clinical professor at yale school of medicine and author of "every patient tells a story." welcome to you both. >> good morning. >> dr. sanders, let's start with you. what caught your ear as a practicing physician in president obama's speech last night? >> well, first, it was great to hear that the discourse is going to get back on track and we can talk about the real problems that face us as we take care of our patients on a daily basis. so that was really great to hear. i was really glad to hear that he's going to protect people who already have insurance. i have a patient who had the misfortune of having a heart attack 20 years ago. now he can't get insurance. his cobra ran out after he retired early. and he has five more years to medicare and he can't get insurance. that shouldn't happen. and i think that the obama's -- the reforms he's suggesting will make sure that that doesn't happen. and that was very exciting. >> yeah, the one thing i think

many americans are still wondering about is how do you pay to cover every american, you know, for every american to have health insurance, you're going to have to pay for it somehow. one of the ideas that president obama talked about was eliminating the fraud in medicare. and dr. healey, i wanted to talk to you about that. he said that he wants to put together an independent panel of doctors and health care professionals and eliminate millions and millions of dollars of fraud and that could, of course, help pay for health insurance for everyone. what do you think about that? >> well, i think it's absolutely right in that we have to make sure that there isn't abuse, isn't fraud, isn't waste in any of our government programs, but i think we have been working on fraud and abuse in these government health care programs for a long time and i'm not so optimistic, as the president seemed to be, that we could raise that kind of money just by going after fraud. one issue is, though, could we go after waste and waste is a broader term, which could mean

are doctors rendering too much care? are they using drugs that they shouldn't be using? more monitoring of the performance of physicians. and i think that needs to be defined. so i would home in on, what do you mean by "waste"? and does that include the performance of physicians and judgments as to whether or not a particular treatment should have been done in a given setting? >> and you know, dr. sanders, some analysts say that will put a big burden on our health care system and actually hurt it in the long run when you, you know, you're busy about ferreting out waste, maybe that will affect care? >> well, i think that dr. healy is exactly right. our patients are getting too much care and not of the right variety. we order too many tests, we prescribe too many drugs, we send people for too many procedures that don't help them live longer and don't help them do better. if all this money were paying off, we would be the longest-lived people on the planet and we know we're not. our health is not nearly as good

as it is in other places. so i think that there is a lot of unthinking medicine and i think that if focusing on getting people to use the right care at the right time is the most important thing we can do for our doctors. and our patients. >> something else the president brought up last night was malpractice reform. and i'll just read what he said. he said, i don't believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet, but i have talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs. dr. healy, what does that say? do you think the president is serious about this or is he just throwing a caveat to republicans? >> quite honestly, i think this was one of the weakest parts of his speech. back in mid-june, he spoke to the ama and basically said, i'm going to study this, i'm going to take a look at it and see what we can do. he never used the word "tort reform." last night, he brought it up as if -- and said, basically, the same thing he said several months ago, as if it were new,

and said, now i'm going to talk to hhs to develop pilot programs. there's a lot of information on defensive medicine, the cost to the system. i think that he has to be much more specific about this and maybe he has to use that word "tort reform." and this is a legal issue, it is not just a medical issue. again, we need much more depth on it. the way it was said last night, it was almost a throwaway, because this is a concern and it is a big cost driver for our medical system. >> thanks to both of you. we could talk about this all day and all night and for months, i wish we had more time. dr. sanders, dr. healy, thanks for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. we know you have lots of questions about health care reform and we're helping you sort fact from fiction and putting all the answers on the line. just head to cnn.com/healthcare. i meant to say, we're putting

all the answers online, that's why you go to that website. she was a cinderella story at this year's u.s. open, but unfortunately for melanie eowdi, it turned midnight last night. but the way she was playing, she was going to be a star in the tennis world for years to come and she's joining us coming up in a couple of minutes to talk about her experience. - ( classical music playing throughout ) - wireless can bring

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good morning, new york city, where it's cloudy, mostly

cloudy, at 61 degrees. later on today, afternoon showers. it's going to be a cool day. a high of only 69 degrees. rob marciano is tracking all of the extreme weather across the country. tell us about this rain in the northeast today, rob. >> a very slow-moving storm, john and carol, with the windy conditions that persist, that east wind. that's what's going to give you the fits over the next day or two. this guy is actually going to move back towards the coastline of jersey and it will continue this east wind off the ocean. that will keep you on the rather moist side. so be aware of that. tomorrow looks to be the heaviest day of rainfall. not a whole lot of rain across parts of florida, but there are some scattered showers. we are trying to land the shuttle tonight at 7:00 or thereabouts. and it looks pretty good. just some isolated scattered showers, but as you know, weather can always play a factor in this thing. so we'll monitor that carefully. one quick check on what's going on with hurricane fred, a category 2 storm with 105-mile-per-hour winds. weakening somewhat, heading to slightly cooler, slightly drier waters. it's going to continue this

track and weaken further, likely staying out there as a fish storm, but you never know. some of our computer models are doing some funny things with fred and hopefully it will stay out to sea. we'll just have to wait and see. >> rob marciano, thanks so much. melanie oudin, she was the sender re cinderella story. achoo! (announcer) what are you going to miss when you have an allergy attack? achoo! (announcer) benadryl is more effective than claritin at relieving your worst symptoms. and works when you need it most. benadryl. you can't pause life. but now that i'm breathing better with advair... i can enjoy the zoo with my grandkids. (announcer) for people with copd including chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both, great news. advair helps significantly improve lung function.

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the crowds at this year's u.s. open at 17-year-old phenom melanie oudin -- do you like to be called a phenom? actually, you inspired all of us with your grit on the court to become the comeback kid who make it to the court of finals. >> the dream ended last night when melanie lost in straight sets. a rising star in her own right, but her world ranking is going to rise from where it was. melanie joins us this morning to tell us about what the experience was like. first, we've got to say. on air, formally, congratulations. a tremendous run you had at the u.s. open. >> thank you. >> last year was your first u.s. open appearance, came in as a wild card, was out in the first round. what was this year's experience compared to last? >> it was so much better. i wanted to get revenge this year, because it was pretty disappointing losing last year first round. >> yeah, you'd been pro for all of four months. >> yeah. i did better.

i was really proud of myself. >> and you said before it was a combination of everything that maybe affected your game. tell us about that, what the pressure has been like on you, with all of the attention that you're getting. >> it's been hard. it's definitely different from what i'm used to. i'm just used to going out and playing tennis, but these two weeks has been so much more than that. lots of media and different things happening and people knowing who i am now and just a lot of things, but all in all, it was good for me and a good learning experience. >> in all of the big matches you had played before, petrova, sharapova, you lost the first set, but you came back to win. the same thing happened, but just put up this picture here of you after losing the first set. it was something in your face that said, uh-oh. what was going through your mind? >> i knew i wasn't playing as well as i had in the past matches so it was going to be hard to try to come back. and i did try, but carolyn's too strong of a player and she

didn't let me back in the match. >> caroline, the young woman who beat you, you were interviewed before her and she actually turned to the crowd and said, you know, i hope you're glad that i won, because she knew how much the crowd loved you. >> i got the exact quote here. she said, i'm sorry i won against melanie today. i know many of you guys wanted her to win, but hopefully i won many of your guys' heart and you'll be cheering at me at my next match. >> i was really surprised to hear that. caroline's a really nice girl. >> how does it make you feel that people have embraced you like this. you had to be really disappointed and kind of angry that you lost the match, yet here's this like, overwhelming love coming at you from the crowd. >> it's pretty exciting. it's very different for me, having everyone know who i am now and stuff, but it's cool that i have a lot of new fans and people who are going to be cheering for me. >> what have you learned through this u.s. open? and let me just, you know, for people who really understand tennis, you had more winning

shots than caroline did, but twice as many unforced errors, you had 42. it's difficult to win when you're making that many errors. what did you learn during this u.s. open that you will take with you into the next tournament? >> i'll definitely learn that i -- i've gained confidence this tournament, that i can do this again, hopefully. and that i can compete with the best in the world, you know, no matter how highly ranked they are. i beat sharapova, who's a huge champion, has been number one in the world before. so my confidence has definitely gone up. >> you got a lot of physical toughness. do you have to work on the mental part of the game too? >> yes, you have to work on both. mentally it's a very, very important part of the game. >> so you're going to go home and i think i heard you vowed you would continue to live life as normal. >> yes. >> what is normal for you? >> normal is just going home and spending time with my family and going to the mall with my friends and the movies and just being a normal 17-year-old kid. >> as normal as you can be.

but what about tennis? what's next for you? >> next for me, i'm going to asia, my next tournament coming up. that's going to be interesting. >> so we've got to ask this to clarify this. what was the hotel thing all about? we've got some stories that say the hotel wouldn't let you stay and other reports say, well, the hotel didn't know it was you. what happened there? >> no, it was just the fact that we had -- our reservation had ended and then we just moved across the street, and they didn't really have anymore rooms. so it wasn't a big deal. >> did your agent say, hey, wait a minute, we've got melanie oudin here, she needs a room. >> apparently they didn't think that was good enough. >> when you became a big a name as sharapova, that won't happen anymore. >> she is big as name, she beat her! come on! hey, congratulations. you did terrific work out there. >> thank you very much. >> i love your game, i loved the way you made all those shots instead of just sitting back there and expecting it. we're looking for big things from you. >> thank you. 55 minutes past the hour. we'll be right back.

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hey, that little guy really gets around, doesn't he? he's known as the crasher squirrel and he's all the rage online. he has tribute pages, he has facebook fans, and now he's headed to national geographic. he's actually a real squirrel who popped into camping couple melissa and jackson brandt's photo unexpectly and people just went absolutely nuts. now there's a website where you can cut and paste the squirrel, you can cut and paste the squirrel into any photo you want. he's been at woodstock, the apollo moon landing, and apparently "american morning" too. and now drumroll, the couple submitted the real photo for a contest in national geographic and the shot that started it all